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Re:Billionaire Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Reappears in Hong Kong by sneak on Thursday October 14, 2021 @02:50AM (#28861254)
The US spends Jeff Bezos' entire net worth on its military alone every 90 days. The US military has burned up over 4x Apple's entire market cap in the time since the iPhone was introduced in 2008, and this is just one part of the government in one country (where only 1/20th of humans live).

The wealth and power of individuals and private corporations is absolutely trivial compared to that of governments.

Hundreds of billions is pocket change to the state. They own the arena in which the game is played. They legitimately operate the databases that track the value of money, and run the printers that produce more. There is no practical amount of wealth that brings a private citizen's stature into the same realm.

Re:Billionaire Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Reappears in Hong Kong by helloworld11 on Friday October 15, 2021 @01:50AM (#28874741)
Your point is also interesting in how it interacts with a common complaint in activist media, mainstream media and right here on HN frequently: People heavily and often complain about tax evasion by private wealthy individuals due to the financial power it gives them, but rarely mention the immense power that major states already have, tax evasion losses or no, to control narratives for billions of people. More argument should be devoted to the question of just how much money the state should be spending and how from the funds it already collects. This is more important than painting every major case of tax evasion as a crushing loss for governments whose existing budgets are astronomical and already and frequently used in incredibly wasteful ways.
Re:Billionaire Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Reappears in Hong Kong by novok on Friday October 15, 2021 @02:35AM (#28874969)
Its a pretty common conservative talking point and has been for quite a while. It's half of the republican party's external marketing at times, even though they actually act differently.
Re:Billionaire Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Reappears in Hong Kong by helloworld11 on Friday October 15, 2021 @03:46PM (#28882248)
This doesn't at all make it invalid as a point to consider.